On Sunday, at the urge of Julie, a couchsurfer from Montréal and former ALT in Hyôgo Prefecture, I visited Kannon-ji Temple in Murakami, about 300 meters from my base school and a very short walk from a 7-Eleven.  The significance of this temple is that it contains the last monk in Japan to attain sokushinbutsu, [...]

Over the three day weekend, I climbed Mount Fuji, the tallest mountain in Japan at 3,776 meters (12,388 feet).  It is said that you really must climb it once, but if you climb it twice or more, you are pretty much crazy.  That never made sense to me, since mountains are fun to climb, and [...]

この石碑は瀬波海岸の近いです。偶然に見つけたけど、とても面白いと思います。英語にも翻訳しておきました。     昭和二十年十月三日午前十時頃、突如この沖に米国軍上陸艦艇（LST型三〇〇〇余トン）二十二隻が姿を現し、米国陸軍第十一軍団将兵七百余名がこの地点に上陸した。同時に車輌・戦車・重機など軍需物資の陸揚作業が開始され、その年の十二月下旬まで続いた。陸揚物資は道路や瀬波小学校庭、あるいは、駅前広場などを埋めつくした。その間将兵たち大観荘（旧日本会舘道場）と瀬波小学校に宿泊した。その後、物資は将兵と共に新潟へ向った。 米国軍上陸は、当時の瀬波住民にとって青天のへきれきであった。しかし、このような重大な事実は、多くの終戦記録にも見られない。永遠の平和をお願いつつ、この史実を長く後世に伝えるためにここに記した。

This is my translation of a war memorial that I came across near the Senami coastline in Murakami. The original Japanese is posted on the Japanese version of this site, so feel free to add translation advice, especially concerning the second paragraph, which I don’t completely understand. On October 3rd 1945, around 10 AM, the [...]

My friend Mike Beeson made a video for an online contest, and came in as a runner-up, winning a $2,500 prize.  Check out the press release here at the iRise video contest or watch the video below.

Today I said goodbye to Kamikaifu Elementary, my very favorite school in Murakami.  Over the past year, I have visited the school 17 times.  This is far less than any other school, but it only has 41 students.  The school was comprehensible, and friendly.  The staff talked to me about interesting things.  No one ever [...]